We went out to the Birds of the Bush
Festival at Rankins Springs over the long weekend. There were lots of
woodswallows around, particularly in Cocoparra NP, white-browed, masked and
black-faced.
Lindsay Hansch
From: Anthony Overs
[
Sent: Friday, 23 October 2009 4:09
PM
To: Geoffrey Dabb
Cc: canberra birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] 2)
Rufus Songlarks, 1) White-winged Triller at ANU [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Just to add...
A horde of woodswallows, mostly White-browed, some Masked, descended on my
aunt's place in Griffith, NSW for a few hours last week. One shot shows at least
400 birds in the air. They spent their time flying in and out of a gum and a
bottle brush. Must have been feeding, but my aunt could not see on what. Not
sure if any pairs stayed.
Two pics attached.
Cheers
Anthony
2009/10/23 Geoffrey Dabb <>
Yes Marnix - trillers and
songlarks are good examples. Perhaps the best example is the W-browed
Wswallows (sometimes with Masked) when they appear - maybe every 3
years. On 4 occasions in S Canberra esp Callum Brae I have seen
large numbers suddenly arrive and feed in company, before they move on
abruptly, leaving maybe a dozen nesting pairs in a good year and in a poor year
only a couple. It is as if the main cohort exhausts the readily available
food and has to move on to maintain itself. I wonder if the stayers
represent more mature bids or more strongly bonded pairs. There are a few
relevant obs noted in HANZAB including from Canberra. No sign of a
woodswallow horde as yet this spring. One view is that such
influxes are pushed by dry conditions to west, which might not exist this year.
